The ERIC information system is designed for computerized information storage and retrieval. While the computer can play an increasingly more vital role in facilitating reference searches of large literature collections, experience shows that manual searching gives the user skills and expertise that are essential to effectively use the computerized system. Several tools are available to aid in manually searching for information stored in ERIC files. These are: (1) Research in Education (RIE), composed of a series of document resumes and subject, author, and institution indexes; (2) Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE) containing coverage of 530 publications representing the core periodical literature in education; and (3) the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors with its vocabulary used for indexing the various documents, projects, and journal articles entered into the ERIC information system. A subject search of the ERIC file requires three major steps: (1) establish a clear and concise statement of the problem or information need; (2) follow the two sequential procedures for manually searching the subject index; and (3) review the document resumes and article citations located in the subject index. Search strategies using the computer still require the use of principal ERIC tools, but in magnetic tape form. Whether manual or computerized searches are undertaken it will be necessary for users to ultimately seek actual documents in libraries or order them from ERIC. (Author/AL)